Author

Will Parker

Date of Award

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.)

First Reader

Awet Andemicael

Second Reader

Melanie Ross

Abstract

This project examines the practice of musical improv and group vocal improvisation as an accessible method for Christian worship, formation, and theological reflection, focusing on the Episcopal Church. It explores musical improv’s potential for community-making and transformation through overlapping elements necessary for improv and love: play, attentiveness, acceptance, self-giving, and trust. This paper also gives attention to the loneliness epidemic, one of the most pressing global problems in the wake of COVID-19, and how musical improv in a faith context might serve to help alleviate social, psychological, and existential loneliness by helping people connect with each other, themselves, and God. The project advocates for creating new imaginative faith communities that innovatively use the arts and improvisation to reconstruct ways of worshipping, being together, and embodying the love of Jesus. Through drawing on trinitarian doctrine and anarchist themes, the project also explores how improvisation might be used as a model for ecclesiology and how the elements of improvisation might inform and inspire the church to best follow God’s call.

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Religion Commons

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